Traditional ice cream cones, and the methods and apparatus for making such cones, are well known in the prior art. There are generally two types of edible, hand held containers or cones capable of holding ice cream or other frozen confections, such as yogurt: wafer or cake cones and sugar or waffle cones. Wafer or cake cones are baked in molds using what is generally referred to in the art as a "liquid" dough generally composed of water, flour and sugar, wherein the sugar content of the dough is relatively low, 6 or 7% by weight. Wafer or cake cones are generally 1/32" to 1/16" thick and are baked between 1 to 11/2 minutes. Sugar or waffle cones, on the other hand, are baked flat and then rolled into a cone shape using a dough having a relatively high sugar content, 25% or more by weight. U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,587, describes a sugar cone having 15% sugar by weight and at least 0.5% by weight of a high amylose starch that prevents sticking so the sugar cone can be made using molds like a wafer or cake cone.
While one of the primary functions of an ice cream cone is to hold the ice cream or other frozen confection, the cone itself is also to be consumed. Various methods and products have been created to enhance the enjoyment of eating an ice cream cone by making changes to the flavor and taste of the cones. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,405 describes a cone having an expanded confection ring around the top of the cone, U.S. Pat. No. describes an apparatus for coating the interior of the cone with a chocolate layer, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,591 describes a cone comprised of a pair of concentric tapped wafer cones having a layer of cream interposed between the two wafer cones.
Although such products have enhanced the enjoyment of eating ice cream, the primary edible, hand held containers for ice cream and other frozen confections continue to be some form of the traditional sugar or wafer cones. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an edible, hand held container with enhanced flavor and a method and apparatus for producing edible, hand held ice cream containers using a different and more flavorful type of dough, for example, cookie dough.